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M ichael Tougias is no stranger to stories of the sea. He’s written well over a dozen books, many of them dealing with nautical disasters and struggles to survive. But his most recent book stands out from the rest. So Close to Home (Pegasus Books, 2016) is a rare tale about an American family’s fight for survival after a German U-boat sinks their ship just 50 miles from New Orleans. Tougias spoke...

T here is a longstanding tradition of books about the passing of wisdom from one generation to the next. At the top of the list, Tuesdays With Morrie is probably the most widely read example of that particular genre. The newest entry on the shelf is Dinner With Edward: A Story of Unexpected Friendship by Isabel Vincent (Algonquin Books), author of Gilded Lily: Lily Safra: The Making of One of the...

The year was 1985, and Kendra Kopelke remembers it like it was yesterday. Not long out of graduate school with a degree in writing, she had been teaching various expository composition courses at colleges in Maryland. Her true passion, however, was creative writing. One day, while reading an issue of Poets and Writers magazine, she noticed an article about a group of seniors in West Virginia who...

There is something pleasant about the idea of sitting down with a thrilling mystery novel. Whether it’s a hot summer’s day in air-conditioning or a cold winter’s night next to the wood stove, turning the pages of a good “whodunit” is just plain literary in every sense of the word, and with good reason. After all, mystery thrillers have been flying off of American booksellers’ shelves since the...

Do you remember Jack LaLanne and how much of an impact he had on America’s fitness revolution? In Noah Hawley’s novel Before the Fall , memories of Jack LaLanne figure prominently in the mind of the book’s central character, Scott Burroghs. Burroughs spends considerable time thinking back to his childhood and a family vacation to San Francisco. While sightseeing on the Bay area waterfront, his...

Rarely does a writer have the privilege of turning to a U.S. president to inform his fictional characters and the world that they inhabit. No one knows better than novelist Brad Meltzer how valuable this can be. For several years, the best-selling author has enjoyed a friendship with former President George H.W. Bush, who happens to be one of Meltzer’s biggest fans and, perhaps more...

Actor Cary Elwes is a familiar face among moviegoers, known for his performance in films like Glory , Days of Thunder , Bram Stoker’s Dracula , and Twister . But of the dozens of pictures he’s made, one stands out. Based on William Goldman’s 1973 novel by the same title, The Princess Bride (1987) has become a modern film classic with a legion of devoted fans. A fairytale about a...

There is a certain romance to the Victorian era (1837-1901) created by today’s pop culture interpretation of the time—debonair men dressed in coat-tailed suits and top hats, women with elegant hairstyles in ornate, billowy gowns. Even the simple, ambient details—flickering gas lamps, foggy cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn barouches—impart a mysterious, Gothic quality...

On any given week, you can find two or three of them on the New York Times bestsellers list. Readers around the world are enamored with biographies—the stories of men and women who have accomplished magnificent feats, participated in extraordinary events, and, in some cases, were responsible for ghastly deeds. Audiences have long been fascinated with the lives and times of other people. And...